Copying audio

Drag MP3, FLAC, WAV, or most other audio files to the web browser window to record them on the MiniDisc.

You can also click the “+” in the bottom right corner (next to the playback controls) to bring up a file selection box.

When you do, a window labelled “Upload Settings” will popup. From here, you can select:

• Recording mode (SP, Mono, LP2, LP4)
• The track title on the MD (you can change this later)
  • all options except “filename” use track tags such as ID3
• Total and remaining time
  • Total shows the time the track(s) will use on the disc, in SP time. Hover to show LP2 and LP4 times
  • Remaining shows how much time will be left on the disc after recording. Hover to show LP2 and LP4 times
• Advanced options
  • Full width title support - see Managing tracks for more info
  • ReplayGain - volume normalization stored inside file metadata
  • Normalize tracks - manual volume normalization
• Hide or show tracks. Click show tracks:
  • This shows the files to copy, with an options section similar to managing tracks (from left to right):
    • plus - add another track to the queue, brings up a file upload dialog box
    • minus - remove the selected track from the queue
    • T - retitle the track before it is copied
    • up / down - move the selected track higher or lower in the queue and ToC
  • Use the selection button to choose a track to manage before the queue is copied to disc
• Cancel the operation
• OK to go and copy the tracks to disc as shown in the popup

There are four MD recording modes:

• SP - the MD standard, works on all equipment with the highest quality
• Mono - SP mode with only one channel, allowing double capacity with full compatiblity (requires Exploits to copy)
• LP2 - double the recording time listed on the disc, only works on equipment after ~2001
• LP4 - quad recording time at a much-reduced quality

SP is recommended for most cases. It is the most compatible and has the best quality. If you only have newer equipment, LP modes also provide acceptable quality for music at LP2 and podcasts at LP4.

SP mode does not need any encoder as the ATRAC processing is performed by the recorder. This also means SP mode records much slower than LP modes. See our Speed Test page for examples.

Tracks in SP will play on all MiniDisc players.

Mono is SP audio but with only one channel (no stereo separation). This allows for twice the recording time on one disc (up to 160 min).

Mono tracks play in all MD players, but do require Exploit support on your recorder to copy.

LP modes allow more tracks to be copied to a standard MiniDisc, but require a newer LP-compatible device to play. Otherwise there will be only silence.

You can combine SP and LP tracks on the same disc - the difference is with the tracks, not the disc or disc format.

There are 2 LP modes: LP2 and LP4.

LP2 doubles the usable space on a MD, so a 74 min MD will hold 148 min of LP2 audio. Quality is a little worse than SP, but how much is subjective. Use 192kbps MP3 as a benchmark.

LP4 quadrupals the usable space, so a 80 min MD will hold 320 min of LP4 audio. Quality is noticably worse than SP or LP2, and rarely suitable for music. Use this for audiobooks or podcasts instead.

As a free / open source project, Web MiniDisc Pro cannot use Sony's SonicStage LP encoder by default and must instead use the free atracdenc encoder. This encoder does not perform as well as the Sony encoder yet.

But as of version 1.3.0, Web MiniDisc Pro supports an external ATRAC3 (LP) encoder. External servers can run encoders such as Sony's SonicStage or PSP encoder for ATRAC3 LP, which will then provide a higher-quality file for Web MiniDisc Pro to send to your device.

To use an external encoder, open the Settings from the overflow menu, then scroll down to Encoder:

An ATRAC3 encode server provided by the MiniDisc Wiki is entered by default. Depending on bandwidth constraints, this server may not be available. If it is not, any server that supports atrac-api may be used (with HTTPS.)

A warning will show if you choose LP modes without enabling the remote encoder:

Interestingly, SonicStage converts all audio to LP2 first before transferring it to a device, even when recording in SP. This means that when recording in SP, the original audio is converted to LP2, then to PCM, which is then sent to the device, and finally encoded by the device in ATRAC1 (SP). As a result, SP mode tracks sound better when recorded with Web MiniDisc, as it doesn't do any redundant encoding. LP mode tracks will sound as good (or better) if using remote ATRAC encoding, but worse if using the default atracdenc.

Courtesy of developer Sir68k

Click OK. A new dialog box will show the progress of the copy. The top bar shows the conversion, which happens on the computer. The lower bar shows the copy to MD.

Recording takes some time, but is faster than audio to audio or optical to audio dubbing. The Speed Test page (linked above) has examples of how long you should expect. Do not move or bump the recorder while you're copying tracks, or while you hear the mechanism moving. Homebrew mode (see below) can increase the copying speed.

The “Notify when done” option will use the browser's notification service to notify you when an upload is complete.

When done, choose “Exit” from the overflow menu. Press the “Stop” button on the recorder, check if the display is flashing a message (“TOC edit” or “PC→MD”) and wait until it stops flashing. Some recorders may even lock the eject switch until you press “Stop” and the ToC writes. Disconnect the NetMD player, and enjoy!

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